Vodafone Group Plc’s Greek unit has been sued by Mobile Trade Stores for 1.37 billion euros ($1.89 billion) for damages the company said it suffered when Vodafone canceled franchise agreements.

Papistas Holding SA, MTS’s parent company founded by Athanasios Papistas and Loukia Florou, is suing for moral damages and harm caused by the lost business, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

MTS said that after 2008 Vodafone changed its strategy in Greece, unexpectedly terminating a maintenance services contract and loan contracts, which damaged the liquidity of other companies within the Papistas Group. MTS said in December it filed a similar suit against Vodafone for 255.5 million euros.

“The Papistas Group companies in Greece have made legal claims against Vodafone Greece following Vodafone’s termination of a long-standing commercial relationship,” Vodafone spokesman Simon Gordon said. “The claims are without merit and the purported losses completely fanciful. Vodafone will be defending them vigorously.”

The suit was filed at the Greek court of First Instance in Athens, MTS said in the statement. [Bloomberg]